Okay, it's like shouting into the wind at this point, but...did we really need a new year's thread barely 48 hours after the '06 race was posted? Is someone rushing to catch a flight?

Much as I like Blanchett, I resented her taking spots from Tang Wei or even Amy Adams, because, as BJ painstakingly documents, there was literally no affirmative reason for her to be nominated: the film was a flop in every conceivable way, and the only rationale for including her -- like Matt Damon this past year -- was that bloggers and prognosticators had her down on the list and it was impossible to dislodge her. This is the nastiest trend of recent years.

The Cotillard argument is still so fresh I can hardly summon the energy to make it again. Her legions of supporters seemed dazzled by the baitiness of her role, and didn't appear to notice the deficiencies in how she executed it. (I do find it interesting that several people have voted for her without articulating a case in comments)

Page is very likable and perfectly decent. To date, she mostly seems to do the same thing everywhere else (even in her telephone commercials), but I've found no cause to utterly dismiss her.

I'm surprised by some of the trashing of Laura Linney. I more or less thought everyone liked her. I didn't like The Savages as much as I'd hoped, but I thought both she and Hoffman gave pitch-perfect performances -- though I will agree, this was a bit too clearly in Linney's wheelhouse to constitute any breakthrough.

Anyway, it's moot, as Christie gave a luminous performance, the best of her career. It's worlds away from Judi Dench's drab Alzheimer-ed Iris -- Christie offers us a character so vivid, so vital that we experience what a loss it is for Pinsent to no longer have her as companion. The only drawback, which I noted when I talked about the film three year ago, is that she disappears for most of the film's second half, which I think diminishes the film (it feels as if the sun has gone away), and may have contributed to a feeling by some that it wasn't as full-bodied a role as Cotillard's. But Christie does return for a magnificent final scene, and what's there is plenty enough for me to vote for her -- and, in fact, to consider her work easily among the best by any actress this deacde.

This is one of the easiest choices to make in any Oscar category in any year. Julie Christie's sublime, subtle work in Away From Her is in a different universe from the other nominees, most especially Marion Cotillard. As I've said before, it was her make up which gave the performance, and there was no cohesion to the character from one time frame to another. She was also terrible in Public Enemies, but she was the best thing about Nine, so maybe she actually does have some ray of talent.

The only other nominee I would even consider is Ellen Page, who's thoroughly charming and creates an unusual character in Juno, and in a year without someone as strong as Christie, she might have made a likable winner. On the other hand, given how one note she's seemed since June, it's probably just as well that that scenario didn't occur.

My Own Top 5:1. Julie Christie in Away From Her2, Claire Danes in Evening3. Ellen Page in Juno4. Julie Delpy in 2 Days In Paris5. Norma Alejandro in Live-In Maid

"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell

I liked Cate Blanchett. She wasn't very good, but I can't deny that I get pleasure from watching her, and I did in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. But there are twenty actresses who outranked her this year (at least).

Cotillard isn't one of them. I am objectively wrong, of course, but I loathe this film and deride this performance.

Nor is Linney. I don't like Laura Linney. I find her playing the exact same character over and over again.

Ellen Page is quite good in Juno. In fact, all the actors do tremendous work to raise that script up.

But as BJ said, there's only one choice here, and that's Julie Christie. There's something so precise about her characterization but it never once feels overly thought or calibrated.

Julie Christie is, of course, the only choice. She was astounding in Away From Her. Christie's greatest moment: that last scene, when Pinsent tells her what he did for her, and Christie miraculously manages to convey both that she cannot comprehend AND that, innately, she understands the depth of his generosity tremendously. It's a magnificent acting moment, the capper to a performance full of beautifully heartfelt moments. That Christie also gives Fiona an impish sense of humor throughout is the icing on the cake -- this is an incredibly rich turn in addition to being an emotional knockout. That she came so close to winning the Oscar but lost was a crushing disappointment for me on an otherwise good night.

Ellen Page was really delightful in Juno. She manages to sell the colorful dialogue effortlessly, yet never loses sight of the human beneath the quirk. (She gets a ton of mileage out of her simple "I'm pregnant.") Certainly she didn't approach Christie's level, but her warm comic turn here would definitely be my runner-up.

I guess, given recent events, I shouldn't carp about Cotillard too much, but I rooted against her all season. I think she has impressive moments from scene to scene (though, how could she not, given the sing/scream/cry/die nature of her character), but, as FilmFan said, there was ZERO through-line to her creation of Piaf. I never remotely believed Cotillard was the same person from scene to scene. Of course, a lot of the blame for this can be placed on the nonsense time-hopping of the script, but I can't let the actress off the hook entirely. I can more or less see why this performance was so acclaimed, but I don't find it particularly revelatory.

I'm crazy about Laura Linney, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about Laura Linney in The Savages. It's not bad work at all, and I was fine with her nomination. But it seemed like the character was a compendium of Linney-esque roles: a bourgeois Northeastern writer who plays caring sister and struggling lover with equal parts comedy and drama. For me, this was too much of the same to find this performance as special as a lot of her other work this decade. I do hope she wins sometime soon, though.

Blanchett's nomination was about as unnecessary as they come. She had already been nominated for playing this character. She was already receiving a nomination this year. She'd been nominated the year before, and had won recently, so it's not like she was overdue for anything. The film was a critical bomb. The film was a commercial bomb. And the performance was an over-the-top mess, which she herself rightly recoiled from when subjected to on Oscar night. Plus, there were plenty of other available options (Tang Wei too risque? Well, here's Amy Adams in a big hit!). There was no need to go here.

The definition of Support is a truly supporting character, like Deobra-Lee Furness in Jindabyne (my pick for 2007), or Julia Ormond in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. Tabu's case is a much more borderline one. (Irrfan Khan is more clear support, but I could see an argument either way.) The Namesake is about that block of wood who played her son, but it isn't only about him. Plus, bumping her down to Support would've meant shortchanging someone deserving in that category, and bumping up someone good but who I'm not passionate about in Lead.

Tabu is my choices for Best Supporting Actress for 2007, so I'm not quite sure why she would be pushed as lead. It isn't her story. She isn't the main character. She is, in my mind, the definition of support.

Wesley Lovell

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin

I'm the contrarian. I voted for Laura Linney. The Savages is not a very good movie but Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman (surprisingly, as I haven't liked him before or since) are both excellent. None of these performances made my top five, but I could actually have made a case for any of the non-Blanchett four. I think my distaste for Away From Her (some of Sarah Polley's writer/director conceits are just terrible, I think) has caused me to possibly sell Christie short, but I will say that when she's onscreen I can begin to Get It about Away From Her. She's much better than the material she's dealing with, and much better than her costars as well. Ellen Page is as good in Juno as she was bad in Hard Candy. I still don't agree that Cotillard's performance is incoherent, or that it's all makeup. As far as Oscar-winning and nominated biopic performances go, I'd put her far ahead of Hoffman and Theron and Whitaker, if not quite on the level of Mirren and Hopkins and Swank.

My picks for the year:1- Laura Linney for Jindabyne 2- Tabu for The Namesake 3- Anamaria Marinca for 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days 4- Ashley Judd for Bug 5- Mirjana Karanovic for Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

One of the easiest choices in this category. Julie Christie's delicate performance is so far above all the other competition. It is a high-caliber role, and she nails it quietly and with great poise.

I love Ellen Page in Juno, and I think the film works because of her performance (and unsung hero Jennifer Garner). I don't know how much of a career she has ahead of her, or how great her range may be, but she hits this one out of the park.

Laura Linney is fine in The Savages, but the film is a slight mess and we have seen her do this many times before.

Marion Cotillard is good in moments of La Vie en Rose, but the film and her performance have no through-line. She is playing only each moment, which is fine, but gives no thought to where she has been or where she is going.

Never saw Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. This might be the rare double-nod that hurt her chances for I'm Not There.

I thought Cotillard's performance was all histrionics. It's very big acting, but not very good acting. I'm a little surprised she wasn't nominated for Nine because like Cruz she's probably set up to be nominated for a few more over the years. An incredibly deserving makeup award though.

Juno is unimaginable without Ellen Page, and for some that's a good thing. I think she's pretty great in it, but it's a limited performance. I wouldn't call it great acting, but I certainly can't begrudge her nomination. Nor can I Linney who does some of the best work of her career in The Savages. I remember being surprised by how few precursor nominations she received for this work. It's very Oscar-friendly stuff. I like the film quite and a bit and like with Page from Juno it's hard to separate the two. Linney doesn't have a lot of range, but I'm a fan of all of her nominated performance and some of the ones she missed out on.

And then there's Julie Christie. In retrospect, we shouldn't be so shocked she failed to win. She's a Hollywood outsider in a devastatingly subtle film. It's highway robbery that Gordon Pinsent failed to pick up more notice for his work, but Christie's juggernauting through Oscar season is a bit suspect. She was a foregone conclusion that should have been.

"If you are marching with white nationalists, you are by definition not a very nice person. If Malala Yousafzai had taken part in that rally, you'd have to say 'Okay, I guess Malala sucks now.'" ~ John Oliver

I adore Linney in just about anything, including The Savages - one of the sharper comedy dramas of recent years. Maybe it travels over familiar territory, but the acting and writing carries it, and Linney's Oscar clip "Big Red Pillow" is somehow, for me, one of the most sublimely funny lines in the last few years.

But Christie will and deserves to sweep this poll. A sublime, moving, career-topping performance, and her loss - which bothers so many of us far more than it presumably bothers her (what a cool lady she is) which should have won with ease.